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JICA Assisted Kolkata’s Global Award on Solid Waste Management

Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project (KSWMIP), which had been assisted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for ten years, contributed to Kolkata winning the prestigious “Solid Waste Category Award” at Mexico City at C40 Mayors Summit on Dec. 1. C40 is a network of the world’s megacities, such as New York, Tokyo and London, committed to addressing climate change.

Kolkata was nominated and competed with two other �nalist cities, Auckland and Milan, in the �eld of solid waste category. Mr. Dilip Yadav, Chairman of Uttarpara-Kotrung Municipality of Kolkata and Mr. Onkar Singh Meena, CEO of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA),

attended the ceremony representing the KSWMIP.

KSWMIP is a trans-municipal project for environmental development through scienti�c waste management and stakeholder participation. The two major components are (i) an Engineering Component targeting development of infrastructure and (ii) a Soft Component targeting social development, building awareness and ensuring citizen participation. Kolkata aims to minimise waste generated by segregating recyclable wastes, composting organic waste, burying inert waste and treating septic sludge.

JICA has been strongly assisting KSWMIP, through provision of soft loan and technical transfer, to achieved

60-80% segregation of waste at its source, with further waste segregation occurring at transfer stations. Segregation contributes composting of biodegradable waste at these transfer stations and enhancing more recycling. By making compost, ‘Bads’ turned into ‘Goods’ and illegal dumping, reduced dramatically in the project area. In the project, India’s �rst controlled sanitary land�ll site was introduced and measures are also in place to preserve ground water quality within 50m of the land�ll site periphery.

Furthermore, the project has enhanced public awareness through street drama and lecture in schools.

CEO, KMDA and Chairman Uttrapara – Kotrung Municipality (in the last row)with few Mayors of C40 cities at New Mexico City

Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka in talks withHon’able Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Photo Courtesy: Shinichi Kuno

N e w s l e t t e r f r o m

JICA INDIA OFFICE

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JICA President Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka of�cially visited India (New Delhi and Tamil Nadu) for the �rst time since taking of�ce in October 2015. He reaf�rmed plans to strengthen the special cooperative relationship with India, which is one of JICA’s biggest ODA recipient countries, possessing the world’s second-largest population and Asia’s third-largest economy.

During his visit, Dr. Kitaoka had meet-ings with Hon’able Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Finance Minister Arun Jaitley; Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu; Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu; Arvind Panagriya, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog; Ottakarathevar Panneer-selvam, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and the key ministers of the State Government.

In the talks, Mr. Modi expressed his gratitude and expectation for JICA’s aggressive activities in India. Mr. Modi and Dr. Kitaoka exchanged ideas about Japan’s ODA projects, which are based on the Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership Framework.

Mr. Jaitley, the Finance minister, and Dr. Kitaoka af�rmed the importance of implementing JICA-assisted projects in a smooth and timely manner, including

the High Speed Railway Construction Project, in which Japanese and Indian governments agreed to aim for construction to start in 2018 and the operation in 2023.

Dr. Kitaoka traveled to Tamil Nadu in southern India, and had meetings with Mr. Panneerselvam, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and key ministers of the state government. Both af�rmed the importance of implementing various projects that lead to investment promo-tion, economic growth, and livelihood improvement in Tamil Nadu, where the number of Japanese companies is steadily increasing and where success stories including the Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Program and Chennai Metro are already evident. Dr. Kitaoka also visited in Chennai the

Japanese grant aid-supported Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, which was recently completed. Dr. Kitaoka indicated that he expects children’s health and medical care to improve through the hospital, whichis a specialized tertiary level facility in southern India. He also visited the site of ‘Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project’ where he went to the plantation areas and interacted with women Self-Help Groups (SHG) and learned about their activities. Dr. Kitaoka was impressed with the sustaining project effects.

Dr. Kitaoka further stated that he had been associated with the promotion of India-Japan cooperation for a long time and would be happy to be associated with new projects in India as well.

Events/Workshops

Project Update

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2• JICA Promotes Smooth Implementation of The Mumbai- Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Project – Signed the Memorandum for General Consultancy • JICA Assists Capacity Enhancement for Sustainable Agriculture and Irrigation Development in Mizoram

• JICA Announced Scholarships to Study in Japan for IIT Hyderabad Graduates• KODANSHA Conducted Story-Telling Sessions Supported by JICA at Asha Deep Foundation

Features4• JICA Assisted Kolkata’s Global Award on Solid Waste Management

JICA’s PresidentVisits Indiato Strengthenthe SpecialCooperativeRelationshipbetween Indiaand Japan

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2016 • ISSUE 35 • INDIA

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JICA signed the Memorandum with the Ministry of Railways, the Government of India and National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRC), which is a new agency in charge of the implemen-tation of the Project, and a joint venture consisting of Japan International Consultants for Transportation Co. Ltd.(JIC), NIPPON KOEI, and Oriental Consultants Global Co. ltd., to imple-ment “the General Consultancy of the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Construction Project (GC).” The Memorandum was signed by Toru Arai, Director General of the South Asia Department, JICA, Achal Khare, Adviser Infrastructure, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways, Government of India, and Coordinating Director, NHSRC, and Takashi Yamazaki, President of JIC in the presence of H.E. Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Railways, Government of India, Mr. Kenko Sone, Minister, Embas-sy of Japan, and Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, President of JICA.

JICA signed the Record of Discussions (R/D) with the Government of Mizoram to implement technical cooperation project titled “The Project on Capacity Enhancement for Sustainable Agricul-ture and Irrigation Development in Mizoram (the Project).”

Bilkhawthlir (Kolasib district), Aibawk (Aizawl district), Serchhip (Serchhip district), and Champhai (Champhai district) in Mizoram have been identi�ed as pilot Rural Development (RD) blocks targeted under the project.

JICA project will ensure to enhance organizational capacity of the Govern-ment of Mizoram to promote sustaina-ble agriculture and irrigation develop-ment through 1) developing methods which comprise implementing guide-lines, of�cers’ manuals, and training materials for farmers, 2) enhancing capacity of the state government of�cials in planning and implementation, and 3) establishing collaborative implementation framework among the state government departments for

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(L to R): Mr. Kenko Sone, Minister, Embassy of Japan, Mr. Toru Arai, Director General,South Asia Department, JICA, Mr. Achal Khare, Adviser (Infra), Ministry of Railways &Coordinating Director, NHSRC, Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, President, JICA, Mr. Suresh Prabhu,Hon'ble Minister of Railways, Mr. Takashi Yamazaki, President, JIC, Mr. Takema Sakamoto,Chief Representative, JICA India, Mr. Mukul Saran Mathur, Executive Director (Traffic)/PPP,Ministry of Railways

P r o j e c t U p d a t e E v e n t s / w o r k s h o p s

JICA Announced Key Scholarships to Study in Japan for IIT HyderabadGraduates

KODANSHA Conducted Story-Telling Session Supported by JICA atAsha Deep Foundation

JICA Promotes Smooth Implementation of The Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Project - Signed the Memorandum for General Consultancy

JICA Assists Capacity Enhancement for Sustainable Agriculture andIrrigation Development in Mizoram

JICA announced scholarships for the Indian Institute of Technology, Hydera-bad (IIT-H) students to study in interna-tionally renowned universities of Japan during the 6th Academic Fair, organized by JICA-FRIENDSHIP project. These Scholarships will be offered to 30 graduating students of IIT-H to pursue masters or PHD and will cover tuition fees and logistics.

The JICA-FRIENDSHIP project has been initiated by JICA, to facilitate develop-ment of research networks between institutions of higher education and industrial clusters in Japan with IIT-H that would lead to excellence in education and applied research in science and technology.

In the 6th Academic Fair, the University of Tokyo, the University of Hokkaido, the University of Shizuoka and the University of Ritsumeikan participated and shared insights of the various opportunities

KODANSHA Co. Ltd., one of the largest publishing companies of Japan, conducted a session based on the JICA funded preparatory survey on “Picture Books through Reading Aloud Activi-ties” at St. James School run by an NGO named Asha Deep Foundation in Ghaziabad. The session focused on inculcating the Japanese ethical concept of “MOTTAINAI” which means to respect the resources and not waste without good care and consideration among the students.

Japanese stories translated into Hindi by Dr. Varsha Das, an eminent writer and literature personality, were narrated to children (4 to 9 years old). The initiative was in sync with the nationwide move-ment of ‘SWACHH BHARAT MISSION’ as this project aims at promoting habits for clean environment, sanitation and hygiene.

offered by JICA. H.E. the Ambassador of Japan to India, Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu also attended the event and delivered his speech to encourage IIT-H students to visit Japan and study there.

Speakers at the Academic Fair included Prof. Hiroshi Esaki, Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology and University of Tokyo, Dr. Katsutoshi Toda, Chairman & Managing Director, Toshiba Transmission and Distribution Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd.

sustainable agriculture and irrigation development.

JICA will dispatch Japanese experts for assisting for development planning, irrigation and O&M, a farmers’ organiza-tion, food crop cultivation technologies, cash crop cultivation technologies, farm

management and marketing, land use and resources management, and environmental and social considerations. The project will also address gender empowerment by facilitating women’s participation into planning and imple-mentation process for balancing and sustainable social development.

Mr. Takema Sakamoto, Chief Representative, JICA India and Mr. Lalmalsawma,Chief Secretary, Government of Mizoram signed the Record of Discussionsto implement technical co-operation project

H.E. the Ambassador of Japan to India,Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu speaking

at the 6th Academic Fair, organized byJICA-FRIENDSHIP Project in IIT-H

Dr. Varsha Das, an eminent writer andliterature personality, narrating ‘MOTTAINAI’

stories to school children

MOTTAINAI BAA SAN” (Mottainai Granma) series involves “Reading aloud campaign” and picture books, to promote awareness among children for resolving environment and hygiene issues. The children who attend these sessions also share their learning experiences with their parents at home, simultaneously educating them about the importance of saving natural resources and corresponding health aspects.

As part of these sessions, a colorfully decorated Caravan carrying various story books (written in Japanese, Hindi, and English) was taken to the school, and children also had an opportunity to go through these story books after the storytelling session in front of the Caravan. KODANSHA has been carrying out similar activities in Japan for the last 16 years to promote various awareness to children and has been expanding similar activities obtaining JICA’s proactive support

The GC will provide the design and bidding assistance for the public works and systems required for the construc-

tion of a high-speed railway linking two cities Mumbai and Ahmedabad in India.